diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00pci.c b/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00pci.c
index 6d5d9aba0b73449c3bee16c1e90f16d86c09e2b6..04663eb319504f53d31af8e8fc0dfa509a836570 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00pci.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00pci.c
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ void rt2x00pci_rxdone(struct rt2x00_dev *rt2x00dev)
 		 * The data behind the ieee80211 header must be
 		 * aligned on a 4 byte boundary.
 		 */
-		align = NET_IP_ALIGN + (2 * (header_size % 4 == 0));
+		align = header_size % 4;
 
 		/*
 		 * Allocate the sk_buffer, initialize it and copy
diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.c b/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.c
index ab4797ed94c9f176ae36e388ab41b47712ba7a21..568d73847dca4eabcaf3d2ee974b5f20dcb26a00 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.c
@@ -245,13 +245,20 @@ static void rt2x00usb_interrupt_rxdone(struct urb *urb)
 	 * Allocate a new sk buffer to replace the current one.
 	 * If allocation fails, we should drop the current frame
 	 * so we can recycle the existing sk buffer for the new frame.
+	 * As alignment we use 2 and not NET_IP_ALIGN because we need
+	 * to be sure we have 2 bytes room in the head. (NET_IP_ALIGN
+	 * can be 0 on some hardware). We use these 2 bytes for frame
+	 * alignment later, we assume that the chance that
+	 * header_size % 4 == 2 is bigger then header_size % 2 == 0
+	 * and thus optimize alignment by reserving the 2 bytes in
+	 * advance.
 	 */
 	frame_size = entry->ring->data_size + entry->ring->desc_size;
-	skb = dev_alloc_skb(frame_size + NET_IP_ALIGN);
+	skb = dev_alloc_skb(frame_size + 2);
 	if (!skb)
 		goto skip_entry;
 
-	skb_reserve(skb, NET_IP_ALIGN);
+	skb_reserve(skb, 2);
 	skb_put(skb, frame_size);
 
 	/*